For over twenty years, from 20-42, I weighed 175 and had about 8% body fat. I never knew I was overweight at the same time.

Sounds like its time to wake up to reality tubbs....

BMI is an absolute joke and its an indictment on any private healthcare provider that they would use it in setting their premiums.

The BMI is on the same level of science as the NHS alcohol unit calculations which were, literally, invented by a blind folded committee throwing darts at a board and then propagating the random results as some kind of meaningful health limit.

BMI is an example of taking a tool designed for one thing and applying it, out of context, to another. It drives me crazy. BMI was developed as a sociological or epidemiological tool to compare populations -not individuals. Doctors use it because they're too lazy (or ignorant) to use a seven-point caliper body fat test.

I'm a stocky guy. In my best shape--BJJ, Judo, lifting all the time, visible abs--my BMI was around 32. My BMI is a bit less right now but I'm fatter and my lean mass is much lower.

I remember myself as a teenager.. I was around 5.9 and weighted around 55 kilos.. my tkd instructor actually cursed when he first saw me. my bmi must have been around 18.. dangerously low.. but I didn't diet or anything.. infact I ate much more than fat people does.

What I know about BMI is that it doesn't take the somatotypes into account (mesomorph, endomorph, ectomorph).

This graphic is a good illustration (can't find the source of this atm) of why high BMI for one somatotype (endomorph) could be more unhealthy than say, high BMI for mesomorphs (which is where a lot of highly tone, large body mass athletes like pro footballers would fall).

On this chart the average "WoW Fatty" would fall at extreme endomorph. I think many MAers who train regularly would fall on the right side of this graph, and could still have "high" BMIs but be far from "obese".

It is a nice observation that the best fighters in the world right now tend to have a lean athletic body type.. gsp, jon jones, anderson silva.. they all have a bmi of around 25ish.. these guys compete in weight divisions so I guess it would be relatively safe to say that this body type offers the best ability pound for pound wise. I probably wouldn't bet money on gsp in a fight against overeem